All Sports Discussionhttp://allsportsdiscussion.com
We cover the ACC, but we'll also talk about whatever is interesting in SportsTue, 26 Sep 2017 01:09:45 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.225328630Subscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with PageflakesSubscribe with PlusmoSubscribe with The Free DictionarySubscribe with Bitty BrowserSubscribe with Live.comSubscribe with Excite MIXSubscribe with WebwagSubscribe with Podcast ReadySubscribe with WikioSubscribe with Daily RotationDave Doeren has finally gotten that signature winhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/allsportsdiscussion/rMtK/~3/ok34PP7rY3o/
http://allsportsdiscussion.com/2017/09/25/dave-doeren-has-finally-gotten-that-signature-win/#respondMon, 25 Sep 2017 22:44:22 +0000http://allsportsdiscussion.com/?p=19613

The tenure of Dave Doeren has been an interesting one at NC State. He was brought in to win games, and in his first 4 seasons it was looking rocky. He was not beating teams that he should have (last year ECU, BC are just 2 of those examples). The fan base was becoming very restless in Raleigh.

The complaints were many, and wide ranging. There was the dismissal of Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada, there was “he lacked personality,” and then there was the no signature wins. No wins against teams that he had less “talent” than. That all ended on Saturday, with the Wolfpack’s victory against Florida State. Now, people will say, that the reason that NC State won is because FSU lost Deonndre Francois. Others will say it was because of the ref’s and some questionable calls (yes, there were some).

Still others will say it was because of the 2 week layoff that the Seminoles had because of Hurricane Irma (this is the only one I’ll give you). Through all of this, Dave Doeren’s team came out and did what it needed to do. The Wolfpack defensive line was dominant, making life hell for FSU’s true freshman quaterback. The offense was balanced rushing the ball 37 times and passing 33 times.

Dave Doeren has been working on all of the things that critics have been throwing at him. If you watched him on The Coaches Room during the National Championship game last season, you saw the personality come out! He was funny and engaging! Dave Doeren needed this game against FSU!

He won against a team that will be a top 25 team at the end of the season! Now all he has to do, is not allow this team to rest on this win and continue carrying on that intensity that they took to Doak Campbell Stadium this past Saturday.

Another week in which no conference distinguished itself as the top one. I’m leaving the Pac 12 here by default, as they still have the most top 20 teams along with the Big 10, but they are deeper, and they are the only conference with 2 top 6 teams. Oregon losing to an Arizona State team with a couple of OOC losses hurt the Pac 12, and their grip on the top continues to shrink.

There’s a huge game next week with playoff implications when USC and Washington State play.

Playoff Contenders

USC, Washington

In the Playoff Picture

Utah, Washington State

2) SEC – 7.5

The SEC is a two horse league. Alabama is well Alabama, and Georgia is quietly looking like a fringe playoff team. SEC teams Tennessee and South Carolina struggled with the likes UMass and Louisiana Tech. LSU didn’t play well at home against Syracuse, but all were wins so I can’t drop the SEC.

Next week Georgia plays at Tennessee and there are a couple of storylines here. Butch Jones trying to save his job, and Georgia trying to get real playoff attention.

Playoff Contenders

Alabama

In the Playoff Picture

Georgia

3) ACC – 7.4

I don’t drop the ACC from third in this list, but they lose a couple of tenth’s of a point. Here’s why NC State beating FSU is a bad look for the ACC. The Wolfpack have a loss to a middling South Carolina team and they just took out a ranked FSU team. That South Carolina loss is a major eyesore, ala the South Carolina loss to the ACC Coastal Champs UNC of 2015.

Next week Clemson vs Virginia Tech is a game with huge playoff implications. Duke vs Miami is also a battle of undefeated teams.

Playoff Contenders

Clemson

In the Playoff Picture

Miami, Virginia Tech

4) Big 10 – 7.3

The Big 10 is the most top heavy league in college football. Michigan State looked dreadful in a loss to Notre Dame. Maryland was trounced by group of 5 member Central Florida. Penn State survived Iowa, and Wisconsin and Michigan remained undefeated.

There really isn’t any games of note next week in the Big 10.

Playoff Contenders

NONE

In the Playoff Picture

Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan

5) Big 12 – 7.2

TCU knocked Oklahoma State out of the playoff chase for the moment. The Horned Frogs are a very dangerous team that should be in everybody’s top 10.

Oklahoma State at Texas Tech next could finish off the Cowboys playoffs hopes.

Playoff Contenders

Oklahoma

In the Playoff Picture

TCU

The Rest

Unless a Group of 5 or independent team can reach the top 15, there’s not much to note outside the Power 5 in terms of the playoff.

Playoff Contenders

NONE

In the Playoff Picture

NONE

My Current Playoff Teams

As my personal criticism of the playoff committee, I don’t think the top 4 seeds order should be released until the final rankings. The playoff committee’s inconsistent and ever changing criteria is causing unnecessary frustration and confusion. It’s one of the improvement points I’d have for them.

]]>http://allsportsdiscussion.com/2017/09/24/ranking-the-power-5-football-conferences-after-week-4-with-playoff-analysis-3/feed/019668http://allsportsdiscussion.com/2017/09/24/ranking-the-power-5-football-conferences-after-week-4-with-playoff-analysis-3/Wake Forest and Duke are both 4-0 at the same time and it’s never happened before.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/allsportsdiscussion/rMtK/~3/0ePm38BgYdQ/
http://allsportsdiscussion.com/2017/09/24/wake-forest-and-duke-are-bot-4-0-at-same-time-and-its-never-happened-before/#respondSun, 24 Sep 2017 04:03:37 +0000http://allsportsdiscussion.com/?p=19661

Congrats to Duke and Wake Forest for a couple of nice 4-0 starts to the season. So nice it’s never happened before at the same time for both teams. Dave Clawson and David Cutcliffe are in early contention along with Justin Fuente, and Dabo Swinney for ACC coach of the year.

I’m hoping someone will do some research and tell us the last time when both Wake Forest and Duke were 4-0….

]]>http://allsportsdiscussion.com/2017/09/24/wake-forest-and-duke-are-bot-4-0-at-same-time-and-its-never-happened-before/feed/019661http://allsportsdiscussion.com/2017/09/24/wake-forest-and-duke-are-bot-4-0-at-same-time-and-its-never-happened-before/Florida State’s season is in a heap of trouble.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/allsportsdiscussion/rMtK/~3/yAeDSN4dMDg/
http://allsportsdiscussion.com/2017/09/23/florida-states-season-is-in-a-heap-of-trouble/#respondSun, 24 Sep 2017 03:40:05 +0000http://allsportsdiscussion.com/?p=19657

A month ago Florida State entered the season as a national title contender. Even after the 24-7 loss to Alabama the Noles playoff hopes were not completely dashed. QB Deondre Francois suffered a season ending injury, a hurricane disjointed the schedule, and FSU went into their game with NC State having not played in a month.

Still most folks, including myself felt FSU had enough talent to beat a quality NC State team, but one that lost to South Carolina. Freshman QB James Blackman played reasonably well, at least well enough to win throwing for 278 yards without an interception.

Florida State came out flat falling behind 10-0 early NC State, and played catch up the entire way. FSU fans were irate at several questionable calls, but when NC State converted a 3rd and 7 late in the game the Noles could blame no one but themselves for failing to make a critical stop.

The Noles season is in a heap of trouble now. I know last season the Noles stood 3-2 after getting beat by UNC at home, but this seems to be a bigger hole. Cam Akers is fine back, and in time will be great, but he’s not yet the player Dalvin Cook was. Blackman isn’t yet the QB Francois was either. The offensive line has not improved much if at all since last year.

The next four games are against teams (at Wake Forest, Miami, At Duke, Louisville) that are a combined 13-1. You haven’t even got to games at Clemson and Florida yet.

Florida State’s national championship goals are gone. Their ACC title hopes are on life support, and we’re not even out of September yet. 8-4 is an acceptable season at many places, but not Tallahassee. There was a brutal opening game, throw in some bad luck with injuries and scheduling, with a dash of just plain old bad football and time is already running out to salvage the season at Florida State. Yep that’s how bad the loss was Saturday to NC State.

Each football weekend, I give you my reaction to handful of ACC games. I very rarely comment on games that I didn’t watch a good a portion of. Let me just say I wasn’t able to watch, but the final minutes of Virginia vs Boise State. I still had to write a game reaction, because frankly the final score is kind of stunning.

Virginia 43 Boise State 23 in Boise, Idaho.

Good for Virginia, Good for their fans, and Good for head coach Bronco Mendenhall. I didn’t have to watch this game to tell you how significant a victory this was for the long suffering program and fanbase.

Boise State 2017 might not be a vintage version, but they took a really good Washington State team to 3 OTs. In fact they should have won. The Broncos led the game 31-10 in the 4th qtr. Playing at Boise State is never easy, and what Virginia did is eye opening.

At 3-1, following a 2-10 season, the Hoos can start thinking bigger. No Clemson isn’t looking over their shoulder, and the Hoos aren’t winning the Coastal, but a bowl game is now a realistic goal. With Duke, at UNC, Boston College, at Pitt, and Georgia Tech in their next 5 games, there isn’t one of those Virginia shouldn’t expect to compete in.

Something surrounds the Virginia program after this big win that we haven’t seen in years. That something is called hope.

Amazing, we’re about a quarter of the way through the regular season, and FSU only has one game under their belt! No fault of their own, it just came after a heart-wrenching loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide, a season crippling injury to Deondre Francois, and a devastating Hurricane that impacted seven Collegiate football programs and eight scheduled FBS football games. While, thankfully, no program was significantly impacted by the Hurricane (save for Miami, who has spent the past week preparing for Toledo in Orlando), it has come to the detriment of the schedules of many of these programs. Florida State, Miami, Florida, are three such major programs that now face 11 game seasons (even fellow neighbor Georgia Tech now faces an 11 game schedule with the cancellation of the UCF game). Indeed, Florida State vs Miami has even been postponed until October 7th.

So what to make of FSU’s first home opener: the North Carolina State Wolfpack

2017 Football Record: 2-1

Strengths: Ryan Finley (QB), entire front seven

Weaknesses: Secondary, Special teams

Thoughts: Please excuse my rust, much like the Noles, I haven’t put one of these out in a while. I also haven’t been following much NC State football, so I’ve had to rely on outside sources. Also, it is difficult to get a gauge on this game with just one game under FSU’s own belt. What I will say is that NC State has a star in Ryan Finley. I’ve no doubts that he’ll make an NFL team happy when he gets picked up in the draft this year (the guy’s declaring I’d say). But despite best efforts, NC State lost on a neutral field, with a full off-season to prepare, while statistically out-performing South Carolina.

NC State now faces a much more formidable FSU Secondary and defensive line that ought to give even Ryan fits, coupled with a less-than-stellar run game. The game is away at FSU, at noon. FSU has had two weeks to now prepare a true freshman for the transition, and apply necessary changes to a special teams that was woeful versus the Crimson Tide (granted, they’ll usually make teams pay on special teams). Given that FSU played it close with the top team in the country for over two and a half quarters (by my count, a missed holding call on Alabama and no special teams blunders would of left the score at 14-13, but alas, history can’t be changed so we have 24-7), I imagine we will see an angry FSU squad ready to make a statement after being so easily forgotten after their first game (due to the misfortunes of mother nature).

Supposing the special teams woes on both sides cancel each other out, I imagine that NC State will have luck stifling the FSU run game (although if they struggle here, the game will be a blow-out). Despite this, their secondary is questionable, and Blackman is rumored to have an arm. With talented receivers (WR and TE) littering FSU’s roster, I can easily see the game getting out of hand for the Wolfpack. This game is no longer a trap game for FSU, who have all their focus on the Pack. The Pack have been practicing for other teams prior to FSU, while FSU can dedicate all their prep towards dismantling the WolfPack.

There’s a reason why Vegas set the odds to -12.5 for FSU (like dropped to -11.5). I like the Noles to cover. In fact, I can see this one getting out of hand for NC State pretty quick, given what I do know about the strengths and weaknesses of both programs at this stage.

Final Verdict: FSU will play with rust at first, NC State will hang for a quarter, maybe a quarter and a half. FSU pulls away towards the end of the first half, and I can see the game going over two touchdowns in the third quarter, with blow-out potential by the fourth. FSU 34 – NC State 14

ESPN told network staff today that ACC Network’s primary studio home will be on its Bristol, Conn., campus, where it built a 194,000-square foot studio three years ago for more than $100M for shows like “SportsCenter” and ESPN’s NFL studio programming.

This was a little uprising, but in the end it is fine. Sharing a facility with the SEC in Charlotte, may have been limiting for the ACC. In Bristol the ACC can build it’s own independent brand with it’s own dedicated facilities. Some ACC fans think the conference is still too Carolina-centric anyways, and that alleviates that. It’s only a 3 hr flight from Miami to Connecticut, so I don’t think distance will matter much. The important thing is the ACC Network continues to move forward.

ESPN is pushing cable operator Altice USA Inc. to carry two of its college sports channels and make its flagship network more widely available as part of negotiations to renew a contract expiring at the end of the month, according to a person familiar with the matter…

…Disney is asking Altice to carry the SEC Network and the new ACC Network in the New York City area. Neither conference has a team based in that market.

I actually consider this huge news. While the SEC has their passionate football fans, don’t think for a moment that this strategy won’t help the SEC get into markets they aren’t currently and vice versa for the ACC. I think this is a positive first step for the ACC Network getting wide distribution. We’ll keep an eye on how things continue to develop for the ACC Network.

Do you realize basketball is just around the corner? The ACC is again stacked with quality teams. Thanks to @Hokiesmash_ASD for sending this ACC press release.

The Atlantic Coast Conference leads all leagues with six teams listed among Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook’s preseason Top 25 rankings, including three among the top 10.

In addition, the publication has tabbed Notre Dame senior forward Bonzie Colson as the preseason national player of the year.

Defending conference champion Duke leads ACC teams in the rankings at No. 3, followed by Louisville at No. 6 and defending NCAA champion North Carolina at No. 10. Miami is ranked No. 16, while Notre Dame is No. 19 and Virginia Tech is No. 25.

All six preseason ranked teams were among the league-record nine from the ACC that received NCAA Tournament bids last March.

Notre Dame’s Colson finished strong at the end of the 2016-17 season, scoring at least 20 points in eight of his final 12 games. He finished the season averaging a double-double with 17.8 points and 10.1 rebounds per game.

Colson is joined on the Blue Ribbon preseason All-America first team by Duke senior Grayson Allen. The second team includes North Carolina senior guard Joel Berry II and freshman Marvin Bagley III of Duke.

The complete Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook Preseason Top 25: